Erica Ash plays a womanizing lesbian on Starz’s “Survivor’s Remorse”

This fall, comedian/actress Erica Ash will play a lesbian named Mary Charles (M-Chuck) on the new Starz half-hour comedy Survivor’s Remorse from Mike O’Malley (aka Kurt’s dad on Glee) and one of five executive producers LeBron James. (Yes that LeBron James.) M-Chuck is the sister of a basketball star named Cam Calloway (Jesse T. Usher). Cam gets signed to a multi-million dollar contract to the NBA and brings his entire family (M-Chuck included) to Atlanta with him. Survivor’s Remorse follows the Calloways as they handle newfound fame, riches and other situations that come along with Cam’s career.

While on stage at the Starz TCA day in Los Angeles, Erica Ash (who was a player on Logo’s Big Gay Sketch Show from 2006-2008) said her character was out and proud, and afterward, told us a little more about what we can expect from Survivor’s Remorse in October.

“Her family is very accepting,” Erica said. “She’s very lucky to have that and not have to deal with that struggle internally. It makes her a much stronger person to be able to face the world and say, ‘Hey, if you have a problem with it, it’s your problem, not mine.’ So I’m actually very proud to play this character for that reason.”

M-Chuck will have “several” love interests, Erica said, and a clip shows her checking out a female flight attendant on Cam’s private jet. (“Straight women are straight until my head’s between their legs,” she tells her brother.)

“What M-Chuck is looking for in a woman right now is consent, honey!” Erica said.

What Erica most enjoys about the role, though, is that her being a lesbian is never made a big deal of; it simply exists without question.

“I definitely think that there’s something for everyone in the show and my character being a lesbian just adds another nuance,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a big crazy thing. That’s who she is and that what I think a person who loves someone wants to be—just allow them to be! And not make it like when someone’s black or white—it’s just who they are. It doesn’t need to be set aside as something big or, ‘Ooh, let’s tiptoe around it!’ She just is a lesbian and she moves forward in that and people who watch it, especially my gay and lesbian audience and community and friends, will watch it and think, ‘Right on!'”